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Sunday 05.02.2012

Delay for accused in Port Hope caribou slaughter

By the time the case is heard there may be fewer defendants.

Two weeks before their trials were scheduled to begin, eight hunters from the village of Point Hope learned they may have to wait until next year to take their case to a jury, as a state judge in Kotzebue granted the prosecution's request for a delay, reports the Alaskan Dispatch.

State Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson asked for a continuance until February, citing an undisclosed medical necessity. The judge is expected to set a new trial date during a status hearing next week.

By the time the case is heard there may be fewer defendants. Three of the accused hunters -- brothers Brett and Randy Oktollik and Lazarus Killigvuk -- have notified the court of a desire to change their pleas. Details about what kind of deals, if any, they may be considering have not been made public.

The eight village hunters were charged in March with the wasteful killing of caribou during a July 2008 hunt.

State troopers have called it the worst case of waste they've ever seen, saying they found dozens of dead caribou, including nursing cows, left to rot on the tundra. Some hunters claimed the meat they left behind appeared diseased; others said the animals were too shot up and there wasn't room on their all-terrain vehicles to transport them.

None of the men are blamed entirely for the mass killings documented by troopers. Multiple hunting parties were out during the July hunt, and troopers say their investigation is ongoing, the Alaska Dispatch says.